Adelaide hatched in Toronto in early May 2000, and was
raised for the next several weeks by her parents Victoria and Pounce-Kingsley. Her
first flights on June 18 and 19 were weak, and she bruised her wings in a minor collision
with a building. Following treatment and a rehabilitation period at the Owl
Foundation where she was able to strengthen her flight muscles in a safe environment,
Adelaide was released back to her home in downtown Toronto on June 30. Just prior to
release, Adelaide was fitted with a satellite transmitter, which will allow us to follow
her movements over the coming months. Reports on her latest positions will be posted
below as we receive them.

December 18, 2001:Thunder Bay, Ontario. Brian
Ratcliff has informed me that as of December 8, Adelaide is still present in
Thunder Bay. She was spotted dining on a pigeon along the CN lines near
the Thunder Bay waterfront. Peregrines have not overwintered in Thunder
Bay before, but Adelaide is currently one of four peregrines still in the city
as of mid-December, so it looks like this could be a historic winter for the
area.

September 9, 2001:Thunder Bay, Ontario. Following
a successful moult, Adelaide was released yesterday in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on
the north shore of Lake Superior. Over the later stages of her
rehabilitation, she had enjoyed the company of a young male originally from the
Thunder Bay area, who was also recovering at the Owl Foundation. The
decision was made to release them together in the hope that their bond would
persist in the wild.

July 12, 2001:Owl Foundation. Earlier this spring it was evident that Adelaide was not yet ready for
release, as her feathers had not sufficiently recovered from her winter
misadventures. She is currently undergoing a full moult, and it is hoped
that by mid-August she will have a full set of new feathers. At that time
she will be reassessed and a decision will be made whether she is ready for
release, and if so, where.

March 15, 2001:Owl Foundation. Adelaide
is progressing well. It is still too early to tell when she will be able
to be released, but we are hopeful that it might be as soon as late spring or
early summer.

February 9, 2001:Owl Foundation. Adelaide
remains at the Owl Foundation. In speaking with Kay McKeever of the Owl
Foundation last night, I learned that Adelaide's feather condition has improved
somewhat since she arrived more than a month ago, though she still has a long
way to go. What is evident is that Adelaide remains a feisty bird, very
much driven by hunger - apparently no sooner is food dropped into her flight
cage, than she pounces right down on it without fail! Adelaide will likely
remain at the Owl Foundation for some time yet, as it will take a while for her
feathers to grow back to a state where she will be able to sustain flight to the
degree needed for survival in the wild. We will continue to provide
updates on her condition periodically as we receive reports from the Owl
Foundation.

January 3, 2001:Owl Foundation. Mark
Nash reports: Sometime just before the holidays, Adelaide once
again found herself in a fine kettle of fish (or should I say a fine trap of
pigeons) taking her Christmas dinner a little earlier than most of us.
This bird must either have nine lives, or is one of the unluckiest peregrines
around (though so far she's been lucky to escape from each of her predicaments).

Adelaide once again managed to get herself trapped in another
live pigeon trap on a Kitchener rooftop, and feasted on several of the plump
grain fed pigeons. Can this bird really be that stupid, or is she smarter
than the average peregrine and realizes that she doesn't have to work for a
living after entering the traps? Either way, she has been well fed and is
showing it. Unfortunately, this time around her tail feathers and
primaries were pretty badly beaten up. She is back at the Owl Foundation
for evaluation and a little tender loving care. We hope to have further
news on her condition before too long.

December 1, 2000:43.4N, 80.6W. Once again,
Adelaide's report puts her in Kitchener-Waterloo. This time she seems to
be slightly west of where she has been recently. This is consistent with
the observations made by Peter Coo yesterday (see below).

November 30, 2000:Laurel Creek. Peter Coo
reports: I watched Adelaide for about half an hour this morning at
Laurel Creek CA again. This time, I could quite clearly see the missing
tail feathers when she banked; I think there are three missing from the middle
of the tail somewhere. At first, I thought I'd found a different individual,
because even though I got closer to her than ever
before, I couldn't see any sign of the antenna, plus the underparts looked paler
(but then this was my first sighting of her in full sunlight). The antenna
finally showed as she took off from her perch on a stump.

Marcel Gahbauer comments: Others have
commented too that the antenna can be difficult to see. Even though it is
~8 cm (3+ inches) long, it is of course very thin, and depending on what kind of
background the bird is being viewed against, can be very difficult to
spot.

November 24, 2000:Kitchener. Peter Coo
reports: I saw a dark-looking Peregrine in Kitchener today at 1245
p.m. It was perched on a sign on the top story of the Royal Bank building
- I got the scope on it, there was definitely an antenna, plus a dark (green?)
band on the left tarsus. (Only saw one leg, and that only briefly). The bird flew after
a few minutes and disappeared around the north side of the building, but the
tail looked complete (?).

Marcel Gahbauer comments: This very likely
was Adelaide again. The identification band on her left leg is actually
black, but depending on light conditions could certainly appear dark
green. What is perplexing is that the tail looked complete this time,
whereas it has previously been noted that she is missing a few tail
feathers. One possibility is that depending on the the way she was flying
and the angle at which she is seen, gaps in the tail might not always be
visible. Alternatively, though the odds would seem to be against this, it
could be that one of our "silent" Track-'em peregrines is also in
Kitchener at the moment, so I would encourage anyone who does see a
transmitter-wearing peregrine to try to read the leg band and report it to us
for confirmation at marcel@peregrine-foundation.ca.

November 22, 2000:43.5N, 80.4W. Adelaide's
coordinates have shifted ever so slightly to the east, but confirm that she is
still in the area of downtown Kitchener.

November 18, 2000:43.5N, 80.5W. Once again,
Adelaide's satellite report indicates that she is in downtown Kitchener.
It appears that she is settling down at last. The data we received matches
well with the sighting below.

Mark Jessop reports: I saw Adelaide on the
Royal Bank building on and off this morning. In the afternoon she was back
on it again, sitting on the Queen St side around 2:30. She was not there
around 3:00, but around 4:15 she was enjoying the sun on the Ontario Street
side. A pigeon wasn't very lucky today. The last time I saw her she was
feeding on one, while on the sign. I didn't see her catch it or stick
around for very long. Judging by the amount of whitewash that is around
the signs, she spends a lot of time at that building. I also found the
sternum of a bird she must have caught a while ago on the sidewalk.
Looking down from the parking garage it appears that there may be other bones
etc. on top of the bank's first floor roof, which is under the Queen St. sign.

Bruce Massey reports: I arrived in Kitchener
around 8:30 am and briefly saw a peregrine on the "old" Canada Trust
building. After walking around the downtown area, and seeing some pigeon action,
I finally found Adelaide perched on the Royal Bank Building. I confirmed
it was her by the antenna. Initially, the lost tail feathers weren’t all that
apparent, as she was perched on the sign, but when I saw her flying, they were
quite evident. She seemed to stay pretty well in the general downtown
area, and unfortunately was most active as I was waiting to board the bus home.

November 14, 2000:43.5N, 80.5W. Not
surprisingly, given the eyewitness reports in recent days, Adelaide's latest
transmitter readings place her in the downtown Kitchener area again.

November 12, 2000:Kitchener. Mark Jessop
reports: Just wanted to report some observations from today
between 11:30am and about 12:30. As I came out of the Beaver Lumber on Park St.
in Kitchener I saw a raptor land on a 40' high TV antenna and awkwardly try to
balance on it. It was a peregrine, however it was missing a good
number of tail feathers; the centre tail feathers were missing but the outside ones were still there. I
was able to get fairly close to it but unfortunately because of the angle of the
light unable to really get a good look at the face. The bird didn't appear
frightened or even slightly disturbed by my presence directly underneath the
antenna but I couldn't tell if there was a transmitter on it.

I was able to clearly see the antenna when it flew off, and I
watched it fly off towards the downtown but couldn't tell where it went. On
my way to the Fredrick Mall Zehrs, the pigeons were flying about in their usual
panicky way. So I pulled over into the old city hall parking lot and
waited. Sure enough a peregrine was flying slowly around following the
flock and then it went over and landed on the Royal Bank building at the corner
of Duke and Ontario Streets. Specifically it landed on the sign facing the
downtown. This is the part that confused me though and excited me too.
This peregrine appeared to have all of its tail feathers but I was unable to see
an antenna. Considering the angle that I was looking at the bird it was
quite possible that I may have just not seen it.

Marcel Gahbauer comments: Following up on Peter Coo's report
of November 7, the above observation indicates that Adelaide is making her
presence known to Kitchener-Waterloo residents - additional reports are always
welcome as a supplement to our satellite data; please send any sightings to marcel@peregrine-foundation.ca.

The missing tail feathers can be fairly easily explained.
Back in September, when Adelaide got herself stuck in a trap, she broke a few of
her tail feathers. Prior to her release on September 30, intact feathers
moulted by other peregrines were implanted to restore her full complement of
feathers. The fact that she is now flying around with a gap in her tail
suggests that perhaps some or all of these implanted feathers have fallen out
again. Fortunately peregrines can function well even if they are missing a
number of tail feathers, so Adelaide shouldn't have any serious problems.

As for the "full-tailed" peregrine which Mark
observed, this is evidently a different individual, and could be one of any
number of peregrines. If it happens to be a male, the potential exists
that he and Adelaide will may develop a pair bond, and possibly seek a nest site
in Kitchener-Waterloo next spring. I encourage everyone to help us monitor
the possible developments in this area.

November 9, 2000:43.5N, 80.5W. After missing a report for
some reason, Adelaide's transmitter was functioning well again today, and
indicates that she is once again back in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
Earlier in the week, Peter Coo reported a juvenile peregrine wearing a transmitter near Waterloo's Laurel
Creek Reservoir on November 7, and this report confirms that it was very likely
Adelaide. If you are in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, keep your eyes peeled
for Adelaide, and please report any sightings to us at marcel@peregrine-foundation.ca.

October 31, 2000:43.2N, 80.2W. Evidently Kitchener didn't
hold the same appeal for Adelaide the second time around - as of today she's
back in Brantford.

October 26, 2000:43.5N, 80.5W. Sure enough, Adelaide has found her
way back to downtown Kitchener-Waterloo - perhaps the memory of her last sumptuous meal in
this city proved too tempting to ignore. We hope that she will keep herself out of
trouble this time.

October 22, 2000:43.0N, 80.4W. Though she hasn't moved far, Adelaide
has reached Scotland! This of course is Scotland, Ontario, a small town of ~600
people located just south of Brantford. For a week and a half now, Adelaide has been
circling around Brantford. As time goes on, it seems more and more likely that she
is searching for a winter territory in Ontario - will this be it?

October 17, 2000:43.1N, 80.2W. Adelaide has shifted slightly to the
southeast. Today's reading positions her along the Grand River, midway between
Brantford and Cayuga, near Onondaga. This is only ~15 km from where she was four
days ago, so Adelaide certainly doesn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere.

October 13, 2000:43.2N, 80.3W. Moving south doesn't seem to be in
Adelaide's plans - at least not yet. She has moved almost straight north from her
last reported position, and is now just north of Brantford. Interestingly, if she
continues on this course, she will return to Kitchener-Waterloo, where she spent much of
August and early September.

October 8, 2000:42.7N, 80.3W. Adelaide didn't stay in London for
long. She has returned to the shore of Lake Erie, but is heading back toward the
east. Today's report places her in Port Ryerse, a small town on the north shore of
Long Point Bay, approximately 10 km south of Simcoe.

October 3, 2000:42.9N, 81.2W.It seems the open countryside around
Hawk Cliff didn't particularly suit Adelaide - as of today she's back in an urban setting
again. Not surprisingly, she's in London, the closest big city to Hawk Cliff.
As of this afternoon, she was on the southwest side of the city, but this is only a few
kilometres from downtown, where George raised his family this past summer. George of
course lost his mate Calypso in June, and is presumably in search of a new partner.
It's certainly possible that Adelaide and George will meet (and maybe they already have) -
if George charms her sufficiently, Adelaide may decide not to migrate at all, or the two
might leave together. Given that the peak of peregrine migration in southern Ontario
is usually around this time, it will be interesting to see whether Adelaide is still
hanging around when she next reports on October 7 or 8.

September 30, 2000:42.7N, 81.2W. Adelaide is back in the air!
Around 2:10 pm, she was released at Hawk Cliff, near Port Stanley, Ontario.

First a bit of background. Adelaide has spent close to two weeks at the Owl
Foundation, where she was kept in a 30-metre (90-foot) long flight cage. There she
was given ample opportunity to regain her muscle strength, and to maintain her practice at
catching her own prey. When she was declared fit for release, a location needed to
be chosen. Normally we would like to see a bird released in a place it is familiar
with. However, it wouldn't have been wise to bring her back to Kitchener, for fear
of her getting trapped again. Likewise, knowing the navigational skills of these
birds, if we brought her back to Toronto she could easily be back in Kitchener in short
order. As a result, we settled on Hawk Cliff, a raptor monitoring station near Port
Stanley, south of London. Peregrines have over the years passed this site in good
numbers at the end of September and beginning of October each year, indicating that this
is on the migratory route of many peregrines.

In the morning, Adelaide received her final preparations for release, courtesy of
Ulrich Watermann. A couple of Adelaide's tail feathers had been damaged in her
ordeal a few weeks ago, so to make sure that she was ready for the long flight that might
be ahead of her, he implanted healthy feathers moulted by other peregrines to replace
those that were damaged. When we saw her in flight later in the day, it was
wonderful to see Adelaide flying with a full complement of tail feathers again.

Around 1:30 pm, Mark and Marion Nash arrived at Hawk Cliff with Adelaide to the welcome
of a large crowd of over sixty people. As she was brought out of the box, she
struggled vigorously, convincing everyone that she was in good health and strength.
Mark released her near the edge of the cliff, and she swooped up into the air immediately
with skill. For the next few minutes, she was seen drifting to the east, playing in
the wind, no doubt happy to be free again.

But her freedom was not to last long - only ten minutes later, she found herself
entangled in the nets at the banding station just east of Hawk Cliff! Adelaide had
been attracted by the bait used by the banders, and dove impetuously into the mist
net. She was released again, and this time she took off and out of sight.
Before too long though, she was back for one more try - only this time she built up enough
speed that she punched a clean hole right through the net. The net was badly
damaged, much to the chagrin of the banding crew, who faced a long repair job, but all the
same they were thrilled to see Adelaide show so much energy. She then soared back
into view over the main observation station for a few minutes, giving everyone a great
opportunity to see the transmitter on her back. Again she eventually drifted off to
the east.

By the end of the afternoon, it was evident that "Hawk Cliff Addie" had been
completely and enthusiastically embraced by all of the locals. Although everyone
present wished Adelaide a long and safe journey, no doubt they would likewise all be happy
to see her at Hawk Cliff again.

The next signal from Adelaide's transmitter is scheduled to come in on Tuesday or
Wednesday, and we are very curious to see where she will be at that time.

September 19, 2000:43.2N, 79.4W. Adelaide is currently at the Owl
Foundation, and is being observed regularly. She is gradually regaining her strength
and energy, and will hopefully be ready for release within the next week.

September 15, 2000: Adelaide's feet
and some of her feathers needed a bit of cleaning up after her time in the pigeon cage,
but Dr. Markus Luckwaldt at the Amherst Veterinary Clinic in Scarborough was able to do
this without a problem, and she seems to otherwise be in good health. Adelaide will
be transferred to the Owl Foundation in Vineland, where she will be placed in a flight
cage for a few days to allow her to rebuild her flight muscles prior to release.

September 12, 2000: Adelaide has
just experienced quite an adventure, but thanks to Bird Control International who quickly
notified us of her predicament, she is doing fine. Late yesterday afternoon,
Adelaide was discovered inside a pigeon trap on a downtown Kitchener building.
Presumably Adelaide had spotted the pigeons inside the cage and thought that they would
make an easy meal. Unfortunately, upon entering the cage, Adelaide became trapped
just like the pigeons. In the short term she may not have been too concerned - as
the pigeon remains in the cage suggested, Adelaide fed very well. However, after
discovering that she could not get out, Adelaide was no doubt a bit frustrated by her
situation. Fortunately she was rescued quickly, long before she risked starvation or
dehydration. We picked up Adelaide yesterday evening, and a brief physical
examination found her to be in quite good condition. All the same, she will be
brought to an avian vet for a more detailed check-up before we consider releasing her
again.

The pigeon trap which Adelaide found herself trapped in is one of the more humane forms
of pigeon control. In many places, pigeons (and other birds) are indiscriminately
killed through the use of a variety of poisons. In many cases the birds can suffer
greatly before dying, and there is the further risk that predators (such as peregrines)
will feed upon a poisoned bird (either dead or alive) and become seriously affected
themselves. In contrast, traps such as the ones used by Bird Control International
allow the pigeons to be caught without any harm coming to them, and they can subsequently
be transported away for a humane release in rural areas.

We are very grateful to Bird Control International for ensuring that Adelaide was
immediately rescued upon discovery, and was well cared for until we were able to arrive to
pick her up.

September 6, 2000:43.4N, 80.4W. It's back to the city for Adelaide -
the latest coordinates put her in the vicinity of downtown Kitchener.

September 2, 2000:43.6N, 80.6W. Adelaide remains in the general area
of Kitchener-Waterloo, but this time is a bit to the northwest - her location puts her
near the town of St. Jacobs.

September 1, 2000:43.7N, 80.7W. It seems that Adelaide has decided to
take a look at the rural areas surrounding Kitchener-Waterloo - this evening she was
northwest of the city, near Yatton.

August 28, 2000:43.4N, 80.5W. Kitchener must be more interest than
Guelph - Adelaide has returned, this time to the southwest part of Kitchener.

August 23, 2000:43.6N, 80.4W. Adelaide has shifted over to Guelph
today. It's interesting to note that she seems to be hopping from city to city so
far. That's perhaps to be expected, since she grew up in an urban setting, but it is
a significant observation nonetheless.

August 19, 2000:43.5N, 80.5W. Thoughts of migration may have been
premature. Adelaide seems to be content in Kitchener-Waterloo for the time being, as
she has barely changed her position since the last report.

August 14, 2000:43.5N, 80.6W. Apparently Adelaide has had enough of
Scarborough. To our surprise, today's series of transmissions place her well over
100 km to the west, in Waterloo! Could it be that Adelaide's migratory instincts are
kicking in so soon?

August 9, 2000:43.8N, 79.3W. Still in Scarborough, but Adelaide has
moved a bit north and is now in the area of Scarborough Town Centre, where both Nate and
Rouge spent time earlier this year. Again this must be a site which holds particular
appeal for peregrines.

August 5, 2000:43.7N, 79.2W. Adelaide remains near the
shoreline in Scarborough. Victoria has been reported in this vicinity in past years
- it would be interesting to know whether she was the one who introduced her daughter
Adelaide to this neighbourhood.

July 31, 2000:43.7N, 79.2W. Adelaide is a bit closer to home
today, reporting in from the Scarborough Bluffs around Markham Road. This is an area
where peregrines have been seen semi-regularly (in spring) for the past few years.
Likely it is the steep bare cliffs and the abundance of pigeons (and other birds) which
attract them to the area.

July 27, 2000:44.4N, 79.1W.Toronto seems to be rapidly becoming a
distant memory for Adelaide. Today she was far northeast of the city, near Beaverton
on the east side of Lake Simcoe. Already we are noticing a big difference compared
to last year, when most of the hacked peregrines we were monitoring through Project
Track-'em didn't start to wander for at least a couple of months after they began flying.

July 22, 2000:43.6N, 79.3W. Today Adelaide was out over Lake
Ontario, just beyond the tip of the "Leslie Spit" (aka Tommy Thomson
Park). As we learned from Eco, Lincoln, and Nate last year, peregrines appear to be
comfortable over open water, but we still wonder what would motivate Adelaide to want to
go away from land.

July 18, 2000:43.7N, 79.4W. Adelaide is beginning to
wander a bit away from her downtown Toronto home. Tonight's transmission places her
a few kilometres to the northeast, near the Don River around Dundas.

July 13, 2000:43.6N, 79.4W. It has now been two weeks since
Adelaide was released, and through both visual confirmation and satellite readings, we
know that she has spent most of this time around Harbourfront, near the foot of Bay
Street. This is not an area where Toronto juveniles have typically frequented in the
past, but Adelaide has settled in here, and rarely seems to go as far north as the nest
building on King Street. Kingsley and Victoria are still providing her food on at
least a part-time basis, but Adelaide is rapidly becoming independent, and a few days ago
was seen making a kill of her own.